This is how we relive our great Christmas.

We pause Dora the explorer and nibble on blue crayon and watch our Aunt and Cousin Singing. And we try not to smile too much!

So I swear I am going to start some blogging again.
My lasts two posts I went back and read and good lord I seem to be depressed.
I swear I am not.
I still have not had that vacation I was pining for so much. And I still have this plate that is too full of things that some of you are getting dropped off and left out. I swear it is not on purpose.
Here is a quick update of things that have been going on. Jade is freaking amazing. Pulling herself up and looking at you like ha, and one day I will be bigger than you too dad. (She has a ways to go) she is to coolest baby ever. Inspiring women of child bearing age everywhere to have one just like her. Good luck. I don’t know if you will be able to her momma is pretty amazing as well.
First father’s day was pretty cool. The girls gave Papi soccer shoes. Don’t play soccer I watch it and now when I watch it I can do it in cleats. Just kidding they are not cleats but I am going to wear them while watching soccer I swear this to you.
First Scott then Zach then Phillip and Now Eli have deserted me. I’ll kill the next friend who moves away. Got that? Yeah that’s right if I cain’t have you aint no body gon’ haven you. If you say that a jealous redneck husband beating on the side of a rusty old truck it really sounds funny. I have a rusty old truck and I have a gun to you sons of bitches and if I have to load another U-Haul it is on. I am kidding but not about being tired of loosing friends to Californiacation
Chris got married Saturday! Congrats Chris and Laura.

Chris and Laura

Big pimppin in the cream colored suit.

Mom and dad came down for a visit and I am still sleep deprived and the Fox logo is burned into the bottom of my TV screen.
Josh and Dara are on their way as we speak to see us and I can’t wait. I have this neighbor guy who was asking about a van with MO plates in my drive way and he was saying oh your family came to visit you a then made this screwed up face. I thought how sad, Here is a older single gay man still very closeted and so objectionable he can’t stand family or any visitors he told me. His house is larger than mine what do you keep in that place Frank, News paper clippings? And way I was like um yeah my family is awesome. He made some joke about Arkansas and I was un-neighborly. I turned around and walked off and while walking away refitted my iPod ear buds and started cutting the lawn again. Of all the nerve; I wanted to say something I wanted to but I kept my cool.
My old Friend Seth found me via twitter. Catching up has been a pleasant experience.
We have two weeks before we move into our new church facilities. 6 years in the works, I am so glad. That is a major understatement. My only regret is that all who started this journey won’t be here to celebrate in this milestone with us. So much hard work has went into this deal, and I think it is all going to be worth the effort.
Um Um what else.
Oh, I have started writing some stupid little shorts. We’ll see. They may see the light of day or the light cathode rays or your computer monitor if you come back to this address.
Ok
And I think that is it. Hasten the arrival of Josh , Dara, Ana, and Colin. I am ready to Party!
Cheers!

Have you ever been excited and then totally bummed about something at once?
My baby is getting big and that is so cool but at the same time wait She is getting big and not going to be the baby before too much longer.
The New U2 album comes out today . Sweet one of the best days of the month id not the quarter if not the year in my “Velveeta is still cheese and good cheese at that” opinion. SO my sister sends me the link of the album on Amazon for 3.99 and that is awesome, but what I really want is the deluxe version on itunes with the hour long movie! Hello 17.99 and not only is that the one I want but I want that one in a hard copy with all the packaging. I am such a dork I know but that is even going to cost me more. So for what I could have for 4 bucks I am going to have to part with 20 more to get the little extras. Drat.
My neck is out. I had a car crash and have suffered for it dearly. The Chiropractor is helping but it hurts to go but I feel better after I have been.
It also cost money now that I am supposed to get back on the settlement I hope that happens. And I went yesterday and got all fixed and then sneezed and it was all undone. I really had a big sneeze. Now I am in pain waiting till I can go get hurt and give hi more money so ill feel better and hopefully get that money back someday and this time I am going to try not to sneeze!
Last thing I can think of on this note.
Google maps is doing their street view pics. I am excited
I keep checking my neighbor hood to see if they are up yet.
And this morning guess what? We are there. Except it is from like a year ago and the plumber was at my house due to some leaks we were having. His big truck was in front of the house, and there are two houses next door to us since, no it has to be like almost a year and a half ago that there were taken there are houses all around us now. And I was home with the plumber in the middle of the day so both cars are in the drive way and the garage door is open and we look like real red necks and we are so not that would be every one else on the street. But you can see our place and Gus and Anderson and the disgrace of a dirty garage that I swear I have since cleaned all up and organized. Oh and Karina’s old 93 civic is in there dead waiting to go to place where dead Honda’s go too. Man and the trash can is out and not even been picked up yet.
I wish I could have them come back and redo the picture. STINK.

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i woke up this morning and my arms were completely numb. The radio was playing npr’s semi annual beg-a-thon and my cell phone alarm was going off. I have this alarm sound that sounds like a Israeli bombing raid warning siren. I was having a tough time getting the alarm snoozed. i finally got up and when I stood my head felt as if it had been hit on both sides simultaneously with two 4 x 6’s. Like two major league baseball players batter batter batter … swing swang swung and connected at the same instant. I almost fell down it hurt so bad. It was 6.30 and time to get my butt out of bed but I could not. I dove back because once standing I realized I can’t feel my legs they are numb from my waist down; as are my arms.
That is how I have started this morning. Then I sat in traffic for a solid hour and arrived to work about and hour and a half later than what i like.
it is going to be a great Wednesday.
Little got her shots yesterday and although I was leaning away from giving her the shots altogether or at least until she is 5. So pray none of the horror stories people tell you about vaccinations pan here.
She did ok with the shot, just kind of fussy and wanting to be held. But hey from what I can tell that is most of the time. I know I would be! Have you seen her momma?

well i cant believe it but it is finally happening. Our friends and Neighbors and countrymen Justin and Amanda are in the Hospital working on Chase their little man. we were all kind of in this pregnant boat together so it will be cool to finally meet this little guy.

We have been doing everything in our power to persuade him out.

Jade cried all evening last night to get him here and wore herself out she went out at 10.30pm after i gave her a bath and slept until 6.30am.

We have eaten Pepperoni Pizza and yesterday evening with perfect fall south Texas weather we went on a little ride around their ranch looking at these animals more commonly seen in Africa riding on an old unimog Mercedes, stinking cool truck but bouncy. about half way through i looked back at Amanda and said maybe the bumps will help the little man come out.

So Chase isnt here yet but cant be long now.

I am so ready to go home. I miss everything about fall today. I miss the cool rain and the colored leaves and old truck I used to call the beast and I miss going to papa Whites place to work on some ones car and the darkness that hides along the road just off into the bushes. I want Pumpkin or pecan pie and chili. We used to have this party out at the old Kraft home place farm and have hay rides and the works, impromptu skits and bonfires and marshmallows so charred they look like a lump of coal. I miss the feeling I get when the air is cold and I smell of wood smoke from a fire place. From my child hood bedroom window on the second floor there was the valley and the hills side opposite was awash in a warm tapestry of greens and browns and oranges and reds. I miss playing in the band at school and the hours and hours of practice. I am nostalgic for it all, and I am hoping it is all going to be waiting on me when I return there in a week or two. And then I hope some thing gets to me and I’ll be ready to come home again to Texas where the best thing I can think to say about my surroundings is that “it isn’t all THAT bad.” But there is nothing that makes this place nostalgic to me in any way. Except maybe the old whole foods down; town where REI and Anthropology are now. MexiMelt and I went there one thanksgiving day and got tortilla soup and a big deal of bread for a snack while the turkey was cooking. That was nice.  And this is my background screen I look at most of the day.

and this is my little Mexican pepper!

Well it is a nice hot fall day already here in Austin.
Things from this morning. I went to the bagel shop and on my way there saw a Fj40 that I actually have looked at on line in California from TLC the foremost restorers of vintage Toyotas. These are the same guys who were trying to buy mine and I go to it before they could snag it. This FJ40 ya’ll it was beautiful and oh my lord I never wanted to car jack some one so bad in all my life.
And you know how we always think the crisp (corrected spelling today) the crisp fall air is full of smells. I think it is my smeller actually just on overdrive. A girl was walking into the building in 30 feet in front of me today and I could smell that she was wearing CK1.  A lady that I work with just walked in wearing WAY TOO MUCH of something (if you like Elizabeth Taylor’s ‘Passion’ you’ll LOVE ‘DRAMA’ the imitation version) and now my whole office smells so strong. She just walked in and left. Gross.
so my Einsteins; I had a pumpkin bagel and pumpkin shmear on it.
Dear lord it was yummy.
And I am branching out a bit the new flavor of coffee is autumn roast, Elizabeth you are going to like it I swear.
Oh and did you know that the Guy from Iron and Wine lives in Dripping Springs a tiny little town close to here? They (or He) need a better web site. pathetic.
I did not know that. Sweet. Some one else famous lives here.
And just because I am this daddy here is my peanut wearing her uggs cause you know some where in the world people close their pools this time of year and it actually gets cold enough to wear long sleeves.

Oh man, Monday morning and I’m so sleepy. No reason other than I stayed up watching a new show on BBC America too late, but it was too good. Oh and for the record like 20 seconds after McCain nominated Palin i was like oh he did that just for Tina Fey, and sure enough SNL came back early for it. And the show pretty much sucked. Lets face it the swimmer kid, oh whats his name,- butt load of gold medals, Olympics, swimmer guy,- i have already forgotten his name. He is not NOT funny on his own. i was so sick of watching his eyes right to left that i turned it off and went to bed.

I suppose you all want to hear about the baby and Mexi-Melt and all. The baby has gas and her mom looks just as pretty as she ever did.
That sounds like a odd thing to say. I just some where thought in the back of my mind that she would look fine to me abut secretly feel like poop and it would be secret to every one but me and I’d have to deal with the fall out. But she does look great better than before if you ask me and she owns that and wearing it around. So that makes me happy.
Weekend work was kind of stressful but ended well and relaxed and you know what they say, ‘All is well that ends well’ and I can say the weekend ended swell. i need the alcohol water solution for my my humidor, i and over humidifying a bit. and speaking of humidity!
Ike completely missed us, I mean COMPLETELY. We got maybe 10 minuets of rain and that was it and that came very late on Saturday night and I think had nothing to do with Ike at all. It is just so so very humid here that the air can’t hold back and after a while it looses its grip and lets go a rain. And what is weird is it will be mega humid and the ground is still dry and cracking open to reveal the lower depths of scorpions and fire ants. I mean just beyond these critters is Hell it self if it does still exist. (Had to throw something Carlton Pearson’s way in case he reads me)
So I am off for more coffee. Here is your updated picture of Jade, getting fat and farting like a grown up, yes we are so very proud.

It is so easy to post videos and get responses.
But I am not easy-ing out today.
So we are getting ready for the hurricane and the fall out. I am so ready I hope it hits us dead on, by the time it here all well get is some rain.
I would even venture to guess that the whole thing will turn at the last second and we will not see a single droplet of rain from the whole storm system. You laugh but it has happened before.
Yesterday was a full one, Karina and Jade came to my office for a visit and you know how that goes. You start small with one or two people coming by to say hello then before you know it you have to run a file to some one and you take the baby and every one wants to say hello.

So yesterday before they arrived Karina asked a sleeping baby Jade to smile for daddy and on cue she had a gas bubble in her tummy and she gave me a smile.

And the night before that we went to Culvers and she wanted to be on the table so she could see us. In the picture here she is all bundled up and you might be thinking “what your baby is out in the cold and you sat outside?” but I promise it was a nice breezy 97 degrees out and she was plenty warm. No but she wanted to be in the middle of the action she did not want to sit in the car seat on the ground between us.

No up on the table so she could see us I guess. Isn’t it funny how I say she wanted something how do I know any of this I don’t have anything to base it on other than a little whimpering cry on the ground vs. nothing on the table. Thanks for not pointing out my parenting naïveté.

Ever get so stressed out with life that hearing a song like Billy Joel’s “Just the way you are” almost makes you cry?
It is a good song actually.